Hello again. Walking around the local park during golden hour and managed to get a shot of a Eastern Bluebird taking a break from flying around. They are quite common and prefer transitional areas (forests to fields). Anyways, please let me know what you like and what you would do differently...all feedback is greatly appreciated.
Image looks beautiful! I took similar photos however it wasnt as sharp as yours. May I ask what is your camera set up and which lens you used for the shot.
I use a Nikon D5600 with a Sigma 150-600mm lens. I used to use a zoom kit lens but was never really satisfied with the results. The Sigma really helped...big upgrade in image quality. I also had issues with sharpness until I increased the shutter speed which made a big difference.
Not much to improve here. Great shot! I wish I had a eastern bluebird photo this nice. As for what I would do differently (emphasis on “I” - you’re not “wrong”), the square cropping doesn’t do it for me so I’d stick with a horizontal or vertical frame. And a minor thing would be to lighten or clone the dark twig on the right border so it’s not competing for the viewer’s attention.
Thanks Ryan. I'm still trying to figure out my style. Now that you point out the dark twig, I also think it's distracting! I appreciate the feedback.
Nice image, Marcus!
I love how you got close enough and filled the frame enough to get good sharp feather detail.
There are three things that I would wish were different, if it were my image:
The overall color cast is extremely warm. It looks like someone took a normally colored Bluebird photo and applied an orange filter over the whole thing! That is a shame, because it makes the blue color that these birds are known for and makes it not very blue at all. I would re-edit the photo, and crank the white balance (color temperature) way way way way down, until the white breast looks truly white. Then the blue parts of the plumage will be a nice, pure blue, just the way it appears on the bird in real life.
The perch that the bird is on, as well as the bird's feet and the lower part of its breast, appear to have been obscured by something that was in front of them. A classic "shoot through"! I would probably have tried to reposition myself when taking this image, so that I would have had a clear, unobstructed view of the entire bird, feet and all.
The background is a bit distracting, as there appear to be out-of-focus objects going in many different, incongruous directions. This brings to mind something that a famous old photographer ( I forget who) once said;
"everything in the frame is either helping the image, or hurting the image ..... nothing is 'just there' "
Excellent critique...thank you very much! I am going to revisit the raw image to see what I can do about the color cast. I think I will play around with the background while I'm at it. Sheltering in place is giving me some extra time to work on stuff like this.